Little Red and The Black Swordsman
by Alucard101
Summary: An alternate universe where Ruby is another branded apostle hunter, and she meets up with Guts. The two form a partnership, and they go on a shared journey of vengeance. Guts is a little out of character in the beginning. But, how would he have reacted in the beginning if another branded showed up? Character perspective changes


Ruby

The brand was weighing me down more than usual.

I honestly couldn't give a reason as to why. Don't get me wrong, this thing always is a pain in the ass. But today it seemed to sting worse than usual.

This only meant one thing; An Apostle was nearby,

It took a while to find it. Days of tracking in the direction the pain was coming from. Until I came across the castle I was looking for. I was yards away when the fortress came into my line of sight, and I knew it was the right place immediately. Once I walked through the gate, something felt off, and my hand wrapped around the scythe that was strapped to my back. _If it's anything like the last one, the monster I'm looking for is holed up in the castle, likely the lord of this place._ I heard the sounds of voices, and I followed them to the courtyard. Where a crowd of villagers were huddled around, watching what appeared to be an execution. I only caught a little bit of the words being hushed in the crowd.

"The count's at it again." "Another Heretic?" "This is becoming too regular."

Were some of the few things I was able to get out of the whispering. Just when I had put what was happening together in my head, the woman being put on the block began to scream hysterically.

"Please! No! I'm not a heretic! I'm not a heretic!"

I shouldn't have done it. I know. The life of a branded sacrifice should be reduced to one thing: look out for yourself, and the things you hold dear. I couldn't help it though. Seeing an innocent girl about to be beheaded, I just couldn't help it. So I pulled out my weapon, and pulled the trigger.

Uncle Qrow was my savior, Crescent Rose was unlike any other weapon in existence right now. Not only was it a kind of miniature cannon that could fire five times before needing to be reloaded, but it could transform into a giant scythe. It was one of the few precious things I had left in this cruel world.

I fired at the executioner bringing down the axe, before speeding through the crowd as fast as my legs could carry me. I grabbed the girl by the arm and ran back through the same crowd, not bothering to pay attention to the guards, who were standing slack jawed at my feat.

It took a while to find a safe place to hide. It was hard to keep up my speed with this girl hugging against me. Eventually we were able to stop. She was huddled against my chest, constantly whispering. "Thank you, thank you, thank you." I couldn't help but grin at her, even though I knew that saving her just made my reason for coming here ten times harder.

"Shhhhhhhh." I whispered to her, rubbing the back of her head gently. "Now, I need to get you out of here, but first, I need you to tell me about whoever put you in this situation. Who's in charge of this village?" I asked her gently. She pulled back from me and wiped her face of tears.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry." I smiled gently and nodded for her to continue. "He goes by The Count. I honestly don't know that much about him personally, nobody really does. But, I do know this; he hasn't been the same since his wife died." I frowned at this revelation. It was sounding too familiar. Just then a voice interrupted our conversation.

"Sounding pretty damn familiar."

Both of us jumped, me getting out Crescent Rose, and the girl yelping and jumping behind me. I turned to the direction of the gruff voice, seeing a man easily a head taller than myself. Wearing a long black cloak and having a monster of a sword strapped to his back. It didn't even look like a sword. It was to big, to crude. Looked more like a hunk of iron. The man in question didn't look to much older than me, despite being so much taller. He was dressed all in black along, the same color of his hair. My eyes widened and a large smile came to my face as I lowered my scythe. It was him. The man I have heard the apostles talk of. The only person besides myself who hunted these things. The only other branded sacrifice. The Black Swordsman.

I Strapped my scythe to my back and held out my hand to the man.

"I've been wanting to meet you for a long time, Black Swordsman." The smile remaining on my face as I said this. The swordsman grinned and held out his legendary metal hand to me.

"And I you. Little Red." I gripped his prosthetic hand in a shake. I felt kinda number two compared to his name I mean, how can 'Little Red' compare to "The Black Swordsman" Just than, a small flying organism flew in front of my face.

"And I'm Puck! His sidekick!" It yelled in a high pitched voice.

I sweatdropped at the sight of the elf, and I gave the swordsman a confused look. He had a similar look on his face. The girl did not agree with our unamusement as she squealed at the sight of the fairy like creature.

"Awwwwwww! It's so cute!" She squealed as the scared and shy girl from moments ago seemingly crashed and burned into a happy little girl. While Puck and the girl talked, I turned to the Swordsman once again.

"So, you got a name." He nodded.

"It's Guts." The swordsman said simply. I smirked slightly at the name.

"Ruby, and I can see us working together for a long time." I told him with the same smile. Guts blinked slightly in surprise, I didn't notice it though and continued the conversation. "So, it looks like we need a way to get to the Count. Any ideas?" Guts looked at the ground in thought, he didn't get to answer as a small voice was heard from behind us.

"Hey! Down here!"


End file.
